View source for Sermon on Jeremiah 51: Prophecy Against Babylon

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Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind; And I will send unto Babylon the fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. 

Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifted himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host. Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets. For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense (Jer 51:1-6).

Here the warning to flee out of her, out of the midst of Babylon. In Revelation chapter 18 as God is speaking of the destruction that is going to come against this commercial Babylon, He again says for His people to flee out from her. "Come ye out from among her" (Revelation 18:4), saith the Lord, as He warns His people to come out from that godless commercialism which is to be destroyed.

Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hands, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her (Jer 51:7-8);

We read, of course, again in Revelation how that the merchants will stand afar off as they see it burning and will howl and wail because of the loss of this great commercial system.
take balm for her pain, if she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God. Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up in the midst of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon (Jer 51:8-11),

Now Jeremiah by the word of the Holy Spirit names the Medes as the conquering nation. And Cyrus who was the king of the Medes and the Persians came with this array of nations and destroyed Babylon. At the time that Jeremiah made the prophecy, the Medes were still in a provincial state and no threat to Babylon at all. He was really going out on the limb, if you were speaking in a natural sense. Naturally Jeremiah didn't write it. He was writing it from God and there's no fence at all. God knew from the beginning what was going to happen. But when you start making specifics in prophecies then if it is really God speaking, it's got to be a hundred percent accurate. 

If the Babylonians had been destroyed by some other nation other than the Medes or the Persians or the Medo-Persian Empires, then you'd say, "Well, you know, that isn't really God's Word. God didn't really say it, because that would be an error." And if God said it it couldn't be an error. But because God has said it, it happened because it can't be an error if it is indeed God's Word. And that is why prophecy becomes one of the strongest apologetics. If one word of prophecy failed, then it would mean that it wasn't really God's Word.

Up unto this point, thousands of prophecies have already been completely, fully, literally fulfilled. In fact, eighty-seven percent of the prophetic references in the Bible have already come to pass just as they were written. The thirteen percent that remain are prophecies that will be fulfilled just before or during or right after the coming again of Jesus Christ. They are the only ones that are left. So God's batting a hundred percent up till now. Chances are He'll continue at this pace. It really wouldn't stand to reason to think that God's Word would start failing now when it has been so totally accurate up until now.

There came a moment in history when the Jewish priests thought that God's Word had failed. And they put on sackcloth, ashes on their heads and they went wailing and mourning through Jerusalem because they thought God's Word had failed. That was the day that the Roman government took away from Israel the power of capital punishment. Because Jacob in prophesying over Judah way back in Genesis declared that the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh or the Messiah comes. 

And when they were deprived of the power of capital punishment by the Roman government, they accepted that as the scepter they no longer had the power to rule. The scepter has departed from Judah and the Messiah is not here. And they went weeping and wailing through Jerusalem because God's Word had failed. "The eternal Word of God has failed!" What they didn't know is that that very time there was a little boy growing up in Nazareth about twelve years old who was God's appointed Messiah. God did not fail to keep His Word. The Messiah was already there among them. They just did not recognize Him.

But that is the only place where it was thought that God's Word failed to come to pass. Marvelous that God could speak with such accuracy and has spoken with such accuracy of so many things, even here naming the Medes as the conquering nation. And, of course, God declares,
it is because of the vengeance of the LORD, for what they did to his temple. Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon. O thou that dwellest upon many waters (Jer 51:11-13),

Built, of course, there upon the river Euphrates with canals and all throughout the city. Beautiful, beautiful city.

abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall lift up a shout against thee. He hath made the earth by his power (Jer 51:13-15),

Now declaring the greatness of God, "He has made the earth by His power."

he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding (Jer 51:15).

I love it when in the Psalms or when in Isaiah or here in Jeremiah they begin to declare the glory of the God of Israel, the Creator. Francis Schaeffer said that the time has come when we really should not just refer to God anymore, because there are so many different gods that people worship today. But we should more or less define the god that we are talking about. So rather than just saying, "Well, God," we should say probably, "The eternal God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth." 

Then you know the One we're talking about. He's the One that we worship. He's the One that we serve. There are many gods in this world. People have submitted and yielded their lives to so many different philosophies, ideas, concepts which are their gods. And we hear the universalists declaring, "Well, all roads lead to God. You know it doesn't really matter if you're a Buddhist or a Mohammed. All roads lead to God." Sure, to some god. But they don't lead to the eternal God who created the heaven and the earth. There's only one road that leads to Him. That road is by way of the cross of Jesus Christ. And that cross declares to you there's only one road to Him. Jesus said, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not My will, Thy will be done" (Matthew 26:39). 

If what is possible? If salvation for man is possible. If the way to God is possible through any other means or methods or devices or schemes, then let's skip the cross. But the cross is an offence to the person of the world today because the cross stands there as a singular testimony that there is only one way by which the man, a man can come unto the eternal God, the Creator of the heaven and earth. That's it. There is no other way. Had there been another way, God surely would have taken the alternative plan. But there was no alternative plan. Only one way by which sinful man can approach the eternal God Who created the heavens and the earth.

So Jeremiah begins to speak of His greatness, "He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by His wisdom. He's stretched out the heaven by His understanding."
When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth: he makes lightnings with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasures. Every man is brutish [in comparison to God's] knowledge (Jer 51:16-17).

You know, if we, man, as Shakespeare said, "Man, poor man, so ignorant in that which he knows best." But it's amazing how wise people pretend that they are. But yet the wisdom of man, the scripture says, is foolishness with God. And who is man to contend with God? Now there are people who try to argue with God. People try to argue with the Word of God. How foolish! For every man's knowledge and wisdom, the greatest of man's wisdom and knowledge is brutish in comparison to God.

every founder (Jer 51:17)

That is, that man who works with metals and makes molten images.

is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is [a lie] falsehood, and there is no breath in them (Jer 51:17).

Stupid to say that little idol is God. It can't even breathe. And you're just, you're filled with confusion if you call that a god, if you bow down to that, if you worship that, if you kneel before it and show any kind of worship towards it. That's confusion. "Every founder is confounded by the works of his own hands because these little molten images, there is no breath in them."

They are empty, they are the work of errors: and in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like them (Jer 51:18-19).

That is, the God of Jacob, the Lord of hosts.

for he is the former of all things (Jer 51:19):

God has created all things.

and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD [or Jehovah] of hosts is his name. Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and the rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; with thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; And with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman [or the farmer] and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers. And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD. Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars. Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes (Jer 51:19-28),

Again declaring the Medo-Persian. Declaring the Medes, actually, to be the nation by which the others come.

the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their fortresses: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. One post [or messenger] will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king (Jer 51:28-31)

The post, of course, is we get our word postman, the guy who's carrying the notices. "Shall run to meet another, one messenger to meet another, to show the king"

of Babylon that his city is taken at one end (Jer 51:31),

Now actually it's an interesting... this is a fascinating prophecy, because though Belshazzar was in the city of Babylon, his father was in charge of the Babylonian troops that were out in the fields and was not in the city of Babylon. Of course, when Babylon fell, they had to carry the news to him that the city was destroyed. And, of course, it totally demoralized him and his troops and the Medo-Persian conquest was then complete. But here he tells of how the news will be carried to the king by, of course, these messengers, one running to meet the other and carrying the post and the message.

And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say (Jer 51:32-35);

People who have been destroyed in Israel.

and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, a hissing, without an inhabitant. They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps. In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD (Jer 51:35-39).

And it is interesting that it was in the midst of this drunken party that Belshazzar was slain and went into that perpetual sleep.

I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. How is Sheshach (Jer 51:40-41)

Another name for Babylon.

taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass by. And I will punish Bel [the god of the Babylonians], and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD (Jer 51:41-45).

Again Revelation 18:4, "Come ye out from among them," saith the Lord.

And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD. As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house (Jer 51:46-51).

That was, of course, something that was totally forbidden. God's house was a holy place and there were those places where the Jews... Of course, they had the outer courts where the Gentiles could come. But then no Gentile could pass into the inner court. Only the Jews were allowed into that area. But then into the area of the holy place, only the priests could come. And then, of course, into the Holy of Holies only the high priest could come, and that only on one day of the year. But now the temple, the holy place, the place that they had kept from defilement, the strangers, the Babylonians had come right into the Holy of Holies and stripped it of its gold and tore it down, broke it in pieces and all and destroyed it. And here they profaned that holy place. And so the cry against it, "For strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house," the holy places.

Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD. A sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waves, a noise of their voice is uttered: Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompenses shall surely requite. And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains (Jer 51:52-57).

And they were all drunk. Read the account in Daniel.

and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Jehovah of hosts. Thus saith the Jehovah of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon [eighty feet thick] shall be utterly broken, her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah (Jer 51:57-59).

Means he must have been the brother of Baruch.

when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, and you will see, read all these words; Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far [or thus ends] the words of Jeremiah (Jer 51:59-64).

So this binding a stone to the... Jeremiah wrote the thing down. Said, "Now, Seraiah, you take it to Babylon and when you get there, read it. All of the destruction that God has proclaimed against this place."

Now Nebuchadnezzar had shown great favor to Jeremiah because Jeremiah had prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar would conquer Judah. And he encouraged the people of Judah to surrender and not to try to fight because God had purposed to deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. Now because of this, Jeremiah was accused of treason. He was accused of weakening the morale of the soldiers and was placed in prison. But Nebuchadnezzar had heard of the prophecies of Jeremiah and thus he had special treatment for Jeremiah. "When you conquer them, treat Jeremiah well. Give him... Tell him if he wants to come to Babylon, we'll set him up there. Or if he wants to stay, let him do whatever he wants and give him enough to live on." And so Nebuchadnezzar treated Jeremiah very well.

But Jeremiah is true to God, and though he now is prophesying this horrible destruction that is coming against Babylon, thinking, "Wow, Nebuchadnezzar would get angry with me for this one," you know. Yet he's honest before God and goes ahead and sends this guy to read this prophecy in Babylon. He's not a mercenary. He's not going to be bought. He's going to be faithful to the Word of God that God has given to him. Oh, how important this is for us. To be faithful to the Word of God. And though it may hurt, speak it forth.

One of the weaknesses of our age is this kind of a pollyander attitude that we have, you know, "Well, don't want to offend anybody. So just try and mellow things out. Don't make people feel bad." Yet, that isn't being honest. To say, "Well, don't worry, things are going to work out. Our government is the greatest government in the world and we're surely going to solve our problems. And great days are right around the corner. This new economic program is going to work and we're going to have prosperity. We're going to move ahead. We're going to stop inflation. We're going to stop crime. We're going to have a glorious utopia that you'll be able to live in this blessed America," you know. Well, sounds good, but it's not true. "Evil days are going to wax worse and worse" (II Timothy 3:13). And we've got to speak God's truth even though it hurts, even though it cuts. We've got to speak the truth.

So Jeremiah sent Seraiah to Babylon with this scroll. "Read it, then tie a rock to it and throw it in the river Euphrates and as it sinks, say, 'That's the way Babylon is going to sink.'"
Now, again, in comparing this with Revelation at the prophecy of God in Revelation against this commercial Babylon, the angel in Revelation chapter 18, again, took and tied this thing to a millstone and cast it into the sea. And again cried of the destruction. Verse 21, "A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, 'Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.'" Now if you'll read Revelation 17-18, you'll find tremendous parallels between that and Jeremiah 50-51 as Jeremiah speaks of the destruction of the kingdom of Babylon at that time, and it is a type of the destruction of the religious and spiritual commercial Babylon that is to be destroyed in the yet future.

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